First Republic Nabs Another Merrill Advisor in San Francisco

(Updates with confirmation from Barnes of his move, and adjustment of assets he managed in second paragraph.)

First Republic Bank continues to whet its appetite for Merrill Lynch advisors, nabbing another local producer to its San Francisco home late last week.

Kevin Barnes jumped on Friday after 14 years with Merrill. In an interview on Monday, he said he managed about $360 million of client assets at the Bank of America unit and produced about $3 million of revenue in the previous 12 months.

A spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch did not respond to a request for comment.

Barnes, who began his brokerage career 23 years ago at Montgomery Securities, has been with Merrill in San Francisco since July 2002, according to his work history on Finra’s BrokerCheck database.

First Republic, a private bank and wealth management company Merrill purchased just before the financial crisis in 2007, was spun off to private investors in 2009 after Bank of America said it duplicated its own private bank operations. The company, which employs in 69 offices, went public in 2010 for the second time in its then 25-year history.

It’s contemporary Merrill ties have been strengthened by , the former Pacific West regional manager of Merrill’s private banking and investment group (PBIG), who has been actively recruiting San Francisco branches of his former company and other banks since joining First Republic as an executive vice president in July 2015.